Poisoner's Handbook: The Birth of Forensic Medicine - Deborah Blum

The Poisoner's Handbook is equal parts true crime, history, and scientific thriller. Travel back to the Roaring Twenties, when men in white labcoats drank directly from test tubes to discover the affects of the concoctions they brewed. Killing with poison was the perfect crime, as society and technology had not come to terms with the way to deal with it. That all changed in 1918, when Charles Norris was named chief medical observer. This is the story of the birth of forensics and the dawn of a new era.